SHOFAR - COMMENTARY, FREE TEACHING - The Ministry of the Shofar Part 1

The Shofar - you find it as a trumpet over seventy times throughout the Word. The big one is called a Yemenite. The smaller one is a ram's horn. It has a different kind of sound; it's like the cry of the Father's heart.

In this teaching Jim touches on the following items shofar, rams horn, ram's horn, rams horn shofar, ram horn shofar, ram horns shofar, shofar ministry, shofar blowing, shofar sound, Judaica shofar and much, much more.

The Shofar Man’s “Preparing The Way Of The Lord International Conference” 2006

Are you ready for the word of the Lord today? Let’s feast and dine on God’s word now. Hallelujah! Hallelujah – I can only imagine. It’s going to be a great day. You know that final trumpet is going to sound one day…that great trumpet blast...that grand tachea…the blast of all trumpets. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

I remember back when the Lord first put this trumpet in my hands. I fought it and I didn’t want anything to do with it. I said, “God, why can’t I just lay my hands on people and anoint them like everybody else does?” He said, “Son, because I didn’t tell you to do it that way. I told you to do it this way.” I’m so glad I obeyed!

The Shofar – you find it as a trumpet over seventy times throughout the Word of God. I have a big one called the Yemenite. It comes from an African kudu. An interesting thing is that word in the plural form means kudos, which means to bring glory to…this is a glory horn; a horn for glorifying God.

The smaller one is a Rams’ Horn. It has a different kind of sound; it’s like the cry of the Father’s heart for those that are lost. Is it okay if God has his way here today? Are you open for whatever God wants even if it goes against what you might think? I want what God wants folks; that’s all I want. I want to obey God more than anything in my life. The blessings of God follow those that obey.

Scripture says in Nehemiah 4:20, “In what place therefore you hear the sound of the Shofar, resort ye tither unto us. Our God shall fight for us.”

That’s a promise from the Word of God! Do you want Him to fight for you today? I want Him to fight for me. Thank you Lord. We’re going to do it God’s way.

Do we have any Shofar blowers in the house? In the place where the Shofar has sounded, my God will fight for me!

How many of you remember the story about the walls of Jericho? Well, there are walls all around us…there are walls in the cities…there are walls in our lives, and God says it’s time to bring them down. It’s time to bring them down – do you hear me?

In Joshua 6:1 it says, “Now Jericho was straightly shut up because of the children Israel; none went out and none came in. And the Lord said unto Joshua, See, I have given unto thy hand Jericho.”

Church, God has given us the nations. God has given us your city. Get ahold of that! He’s given us your city! Your city belongs to you! It belongs to Jesus!

“And I have given unto thine hand your city, and the king thereof and the mighty men of valor. And ye shall compass the city all ye men of war and go about the city once. Thou shalt do this six days and seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams’ horns.”

Listen to me; God’s a very specific God. When God speaks to you and He tells you to do something, you don’t do it halfway. You don’t do it part way; you do it exactly the way He says to do it. If He says five times, you do it five. If He says nine, you will do it nine, but you don’t stop in-between and you don’t add nothing to it. Do you hear me? God wants an obedient army. He wants an army that does exactly what He says to do at the moment He says to do it.

“And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams’ horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets. And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the walls of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before Him.”

Now listen to what it says in Verse 20: “So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet (the Shofar), and the people shouted with a great shout, the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city”

Are you ready to take your city? Cry out the name of your city to Jesus right now. Say, “I’m taking it! I’m taking it! I’m taking it! Devil, get out of the way! The walls are coming down! The walls are coming down! The walls are coming down!” Ok, Shofar blowers get ready – there’s going to be a long blast. Do we have some shouters out there? We’ve got the Shofars up here. The rest of you need to arise to your feet and you need to let a shout of victory come out of your belly, and you need to let that shout just keep coming and let it keep coming until the walls come down flat.

Ok, Shofar blowers let’s go. Hallelujah! Jesus!!!!! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Everybody turn around… Hallelujah, point them to the outside of the walls…outside the church. The walls are coming down. The walls are coming down! Glory! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! I think God heard us…I think God heard us. Hallelujah!

I remember the first time I took the Shofar with us on a ministry trip. God said to take it with us, so I did but I had no intention of using it.

I set it on the platform as far away from me as I could get it as partial obedience. I had it with me, but I wasn’t planning on using it. A lady came forward; she was bound in fear, and said that she hadn’t slept through the night in fifteen long years. I went to do the normal thing – the traditional thing and lay hands on her and pray for her. As I went toward her, the Holy Spirit said, “Get that Shofar.” I saw it out of the corner of my eye up against the wall, and I said this lady is going to think I’m some kind of a kook. God, do I really need to do this?

I looked at the lady and said, “Do you want me to do what I want to do, or do you want me to do what God wants to do?” She said, “Obey God.” I said, “You raise your hands and you receive what God has for you.” I blew the Shofar…

I didn’t see anything happen. There was no immediate manifestation of any kind. That was on a Saturday night, and on Sunday morning the pastor said, “Does anybody have a testimony…anybody have a story they want to tell?” That lady came forward.

She said, “That man with that Shofar – he had no idea what it would mean to me when he sounded that over me, because I have a Jewish heritage.” You see, God knew that! Jim doesn’t know much, but God knows everything! And she said, “Last night was the first time in 15 years that I slept all the way through the night.” You see the shalom of Almighty God rested upon her. The more I obeyed and the more we used the Shofar, the more things we saw start to happen.

We were in Lafayette, Louisiana once during the worship part of the service, and I sounded the Shofar. There was a little boy sitting right out in the front row, maybe two seats back. The power of God hit that little boy, 12 years old, and he went down. At the end of the service, his mama came up and said, “I was in pain. I had a lump on my chest. When I got off the floor, the pain was gone and the lump was gone.” I don’t understand it all, but I know my God and I know His voice, and I know when you obey Him, things happen. It sounds a little crazy, but I’m going to tell you it’s the Word of God.

Everything I’m going to share with you is in the Word of God. In the place where the trumpet is sounded, my God will fight for me. When the trumpet was sounded that night, God was fighting for that boy!

When the trumpet was sounded that night, God was fighting for that lady! That’s a good reason to have a trumpet in the house. In the place where the trumpet is sounded, your God will fight for you!

We were at a pastor’s conference in Tulsa, OK. A lady came down and sat about three rows back. I had two minutes to share and I said, “God, what do you want me to share?” He said, “Blow that trumpet.” I blew the trumpet and that lady jumped to her feet and started shouting unto God. She shared with us later that she wasn’t coming down that morning because she had been in pain for over three years since the birth of her last child. She had to take all these drugs and medication to help her with the pain and as the trumpet was sounded, she jumped to her feet. She was totally healed. God totally, totally healed her! In the place where the trumpet is sounded, my God will fight for me! He is fighting for you!

We were down in Alabama, and a lady was worshipping the Lord. During the worship, the trumpet was sounded. She told this to her pastor, and he wrote me a letter. She was actually sitting there watching her leg, and there was a blood clot. She said as the trumpet resounded, that blood clot dissolved and disappeared from her body. Do I fully understand it? No. But when we obey God… look out!

We were in a church in Massachusetts; it was a Portuguese speaking church, and I had never seen anything like this before. I blew the trumpet, and there was a man and a lady. The man was sitting over here and the lady was sitting over there. They spun around like tops and God decked them, and they fell and laid out on the floor right next to each other. Do you know what the man and woman were doing before they got to the service? As a husband and wife, they were fighting. Look out! I mean God just took them to the carpet like right now! They got up and they hugged each other. Yes, they did. They knew God was dealing with them.

Michigan City, Indiana – Carla and I were ministering there not too far from here. We were teaching and I was blowing the Shofar in a repetitious pattern several times. As it was being blown, there was a man walking in the door who had never heard a Shofar in his life. This man was scheduled on Monday to have rotator cuff surgery. He never made it to the doctor. He said when he heard those repetitions, every time a blast went forth, he felt something hit him in his shoulder. He literally felt it hit him. It was the Great Physician…the Great Physician.

You know God’s doing some things right now. The most common manifestation that we see in meetings is people coming in pain, and they leave without it. Pain doesn’t belong to you; it’s the devil. Pain doesn’t belong to you; it a weapon of the enemy and the place where the trumpet is sounded, God fights for you. He’s fighting for you right now. That man never had surgery in the natural realm. He was totally healed…totally healed.

Paw Paw, Michigan: A lady was sitting all the way to the right. I remember it so well. She came up at the end of the service. She said, “I want you to know something. When I came in here tonight, I had one good ear and I had one deaf ear, and when the trumpet was sounded, the deaf ear opened up and I can hear from both of them tonight.” That’s the God that I serve. That’s the God that we serve! Give Him a shout today!

One of the things that people would often ask me in the early days of when I started blowing the Shofar was: What happens when you blow that? It’s like the atmosphere changes, and I’ll be honest with you, when I first started blowing it, I didn’t know what was going on. Then the Lord started showing me through the Word. Everything God has you do, you’re going to find it in the Word, and everything that’s of God is going to be supported by the Word. If it isn’t in the Word, it isn’t God. Let me say that again: If it isn’t in the Word, it isn’t God.

In Revelation 1:10 it says: “I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day. And I heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet.” That was the voice of God…a great voice.

In Revelation 4:1 it says, “After this, I looked and behold a door was opened in heaven, and the first voice which I heard was as it were, a trumpet (a Shofar) talking with me.” The voice of God is like that of the sound of a Shofar.

In Ephesians 2:2 it says, “Where in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince and power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.”

The devil lives in the air – in the atmosphere. When we are obedient to sound the trumpet, we are releasing that which is like the voice of God into the camp of the enemy. I’m going to tell you that’s a good reason to blow the trumpet! I like driving the devil a little bit crazy!

In Genesis 1:1 it says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, and God said “let there be light,” and there was light.”

God spoke! God released His voice. When we are obedient to blowing the Shofar, we are releasing that which is like the voice of God into the atmosphere. And the voice of God is the breath of God, and the breath of God is creative in nature. Do you want the breath of God? Get in your receiving mode right now. Stay in His presence…just stay in His presence.

Father, you know how the battle has been. God, the enemy’s tried to inflict sickness upon us. He’s tried to keep us from being in Your presence, but God, you brought us to this place. And God, I just think we need to get this healing stuff out of the way right now. Father, pour out the healing anointing. Pour out the healing anointing, Father. Touch your people, God. Touch us oh God. Breath of God…Breath of God.

It’s okay to even test Him to see if some of that pain has left. I believe some of that pain has left in some people already. I thank you for it Jesus…I thank you for it Jesus. Thank Him today. Oh Jesus…thank you Lord.

I know some would say this Shofar stuff is kind of crazy. Some would say waving a flag is kind of crazy, but you know what? That’s a form of worship. That’s a way of expressing our love to God, and we can express it the way that He puts it within us! We don’t have to be bound by religion. We can dance for God. We can blow the Shofars for God. We can shout for God! We can run for God! We can have liberty for God! We can be free in God!

As some of you are dancing, I sense it so strongly in my spirit that God is saying, “You’re a carrier. You’re a carrier, and you’re going to take it back where you go, and where you go, if you dare to step out, God’s going to bring liberty. God’s going to bring liberty!” I don’t know about you, but I want to walk in liberty! I’m going to tell you something – dancing isn’t my nature. I’ve got two left feet. I’ve got no beat. I’ve got no rhythm, but when God says to worship Me, look out! Hallelujah!

Let me tell you what happened when I had several of the guests sitting at my dinner table. We were eating a meal and the heaviness of God showed up. We’re breaking bread, and the heaviness of God came in. We couldn’t eat. We couldn’t move! I’ve never seen anything like it before, but listen to what God said.

He said, “It’s just a taste. It’s just a taste of what’s coming!” I’ve experienced God’s anointing, but I’ve never experienced it quite this way and you had to see it. It’s really funny in a way; you’re sitting over a plate of food. You’ve got a fork in one hand, and you’re going in with one hand, and you’ve got a piece of bread and you’re dipping with the other hand. You’re like right above your plate, and you stop! Nothing moved! Nobody moved! I’m going to tell you what, when you stop a Pentecostal from eating – whew! But what I think God’s saying is that He wants to break in. He wants to break in when you’re driving to work.

He wants to break in when you’re on the job. He wants to break in when you’re in the school. He wants to break in when you’re walking on the street! Are you willing to let Him just break in? I wouldn’t trade that moment for anything. It was awesome…it was awesome. And my brother, he started to speak. The power of God was all over him. He started to speak and said, “God is so happy…God is so happy.” And right now, God is happy. Do you realize how many nations are represented in our churches when we come together and worship God? Do you realize how many denominational walls have to crumble when the Shofar is blowing?

I was teaching an Evangelism seminar one time, and there were thirty different denominations present. Most of them had never seen nor heard a Shofar before. I blew that Shofar, and they had given me instructions; that we’ve got to start at this time and we’ve got to stop at this time. I mean there was no room for nothing else. I blew the Shofar and I’m telling you that people started to weep. People started to shout. People started to holler. The man in the back with the watch said, “Throw away the watch! You just keep going…we’re going to have church!”

But even though the people didn’t know what it was, they recognized that which is like the voice of God going out into the atmosphere. It is okay to get quiet too. I used to get real fussy when Carla would get quiet leading worship, and I’d say is that woman ever going to move? Is she going to sit there all day? And God was teaching me to be patient…to wait on God.

You see God can do more in a couple seconds of quiet than any canned sermon, or than any preparation I can do. We just come into His presence and let God do what God wants to do. As I started to say, I know people will think it’s a little crazy sometimes, but I always remind them of a man by the name of Moses. God put a stick in his hand – a staff. He said when you raise it, the sea is going to part! It parted. If God said to do that then, He’d do it again. God doesn’t change! God can do anything God wants to do anytime He wants to do it. He healed people with the shadow of a man! By Peter’s shadow – people were healed! He can still do that today if He wants to. He can do anything He wants.

If God wants to put a Shofar in the hand of a man, and as it sounded, that which is like His voice goes forth. If He wants to heal people, He can do it! If God took a young man, and if He said I want you to get a pink polka dotted pogo stick, and I want you to pogo down Main Street, that’s crazy isn’t it? But if he did it, and God had said it, something would have happened. It’s as simple as that. Now if he went and bought a blue and yellow one, and God said to get a pink polka dotted one, he’d be in disobedience and nothing would have happened.

We’ve got to follow God to the very point and do exactly what God says at the moment that God says to do it. We don’t take anything away and we don’t add anything to it. We’ve got to do exactly what God says. That’s what the Shofar is all about. It’s about obedience! God wants an obedient army. There’s a whole lot more to this teaching on the Shofar, and but I’m going to obey God.

I got a call from a man in England. He bought a Shofar from www.theshofarman.com (a little advertisement there). That’s a God-given name by the way. I just carried my Shofar and worshipped as God said and went different places. As I would walk in the door, people would say, “There’s the Shofar man!” I didn’t do it – God did it. But this man bought a Shofar and he called me. We talked a lot and I gave him some pointers. We prayed, and that was six months ago. He called me back recently and said, “Jim, I’ve got to tell you what happened! The reason I called you is because you’re my guru!” He’s a musician. A guru is kind of like a teacher or a mentor, and so I said, “Ok.”

He said, “Jim, ever since I got connected to you, God has been using me with the Shofar. He’s opening the doors for me to some of the biggest churches in England. He’s not only opening the doors for me and the Shofar, but He’s putting me on national television. I went into 170 nations the other day.”

170 nations! And a little tiny part of me rose up and started to say, “But God, you haven’t done that for me.” But a bigger part of me said, “That’s my son…that’s my son!” It exploded within me, and God said, “I’m going to bring them to you from around the world and you’re to teach them. The anointing that I’ve placed on your life, I am going to place on their life.”

I’m probably sure everybody that has a Shofar is glad to hear that, but there’s more to it. I hope you still love me after I tell you what God said, but I have to obey God.

I responded to Michael because I wanted to know what it meant to me when he called. You have no idea how important our phone conversation was the other day when he said, “Jim, you are my guru.” It exploded within me and at that moment God told me to share the things that he had told me with the Shofar blowers that came to the conference on September 20-23, 2006. This is a word for those who were there that night.

He said to encourage them, and that I will do the same things for them that I have done for Michael. Encourage them to be carriers of the message that I have given you…carriers of the anointing that I have placed upon you, and go back to their nations and states and allow Me to work through them.

God goes on to say, “Jim, you are like an Elijah, and Michael is like an Elisha. You’re his teacher. The ones that come with the right heart and walk in obedience, they will walk in a double portion anointing. I will take them to a higher level faster than I did you. You had no Elijah; you had no mentor in the natural. You were a forerunner. Because you heard Me and obeyed Me, I have something to build on for the next generation of watchmen.

Not all that come to you for training will walk in a double portion anointing because they come with the wrong heart. They come for the wrong reasons. They come to please man. They come to please self. They blow the Shofar for themselves, not for Me. My Shofar blowers – God’s Shofar blowers will blow the Shofar wherever and whenever I tell them to. Many want to use my Shofar to entertain within the four walls of the church, but they will not sound it out in the world when I ask them to.

There will be no anointing for those that want to use it for the entertainment of the church, and yes, there will be a double portion anointing on those that you mentor that come with a right heart. During the conference, those that have come with a wrong heart, those that want to entertain the church, those who blow the Shofar for their own agenda, will have a chance to change. Tell them what I have said. I give them this chance to change.

Yes, I want to pray for each of you that blow the Shofar, but before we do, we have to get our hearts right.

Have your way Father. Create in us a clean heart, oh God. Search our hearts, God.

God said that we would have a chance to change. Allow Him to search your hearts now, and if there’s any showmanship, and if there’s any entertaining, give it away. Repent. Give it to Him. Be willing and obedient to blow the Shofar everywhere He talks to you – everywhere He tells you. You see, when you only use it when you want to, you are your Shofar blower. When you use it when God tells you to, you are His Shofar blower.

Convict our hearts, God. Holy Spirit, have your way. Create in us oh God a clean heart…a clean heart…a clean heart.

One of the other things that God spoke to me about is that the church likes to hear the Yemenite Shofar because it’s a victorious shout. We like to hear that, but the church doesn’t want to hear the Rams’ Horn. A lot of Shofar blowers don’t want to blow the Rams’ Horn. God is saying if you’re truly His Shofar blower, that you’ll be willing to sound that cry of repentance. The church wants to hear the shout of victory, but God says if you want the shout of victory, it’s going to come by the way of repentance. The shout of victory follows the way of repentance! As a Shofar blower, you have to be willing to sound what’s unpopular, because it’s not popular to blow the Rams’ Horn as it is to blow the Yemenite. The Body only wants the victory blast, but God says it’s time to blow the Rams’ Horn.

In a little while I do want to pray for you and pray for those that blow the trumpet, but before we do, let’s take another moment to make sure our hearts are right.

If you feel that God has called you to blow the Shofar, I want you to stand up. I trust that your heart is right – I trust that our hearts are right to receive. Thank you Lord.

Before I pray, we know so little about this instrument of God. God is bringing more revelation to us, but we must be teachable. If we aren’t teachable, we’re in trouble. We must be willing to learn. God does not put a Shofar in our hands to entertain or be disruptive; we must be led of the Holy Spirit. When it’s the Holy Spirit, it’s going to flow, and my prayer is that you will hear the Holy Spirit as you have never heard Him before. You will not only hear Him, but you will be quick to obey Him. That’s what it’s all about…obedience. I don’t know why I do half the things I do, except that I want to obey God. It’s all about God.

Blow ye the trumpet in Zion. No longer the breath of man, but the breath of the Holy Spirit – the touch of the Father’s hand. It’s time to be filled with joy. It’s time to walk in the season of joy.

Oh yes, God says you are in the place where He wants you. Thank you Jesus. The Lord says that He will use you to cry out …

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